Automatic take-up attachment for portable-telephone conductors.



D. SWOPE' AUTOMATIC TAKE-UP ATTACHMENT {0R PORTABLE TELEPHONECONDUCTQRS. APPLICATION HLED JULY 21.12MB.

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Imp-arm n Application filed July 21,

To all whom it concern:

Be it known that E, DAVID Sworn. a citizen of the United States,residingat Mercliantville, in the county of Camden, State oi" NewJersey, hero invented a. new and useful Automatic" Tulle-Up Attachmentfor Portehi.e-".ielephonc Conductors, of which he followii is especification.

' or extension telephones for Lcnces and other which are to hetransported from one room to another from one desk to another. or sdownstair or vice versa, es in of on extension house pnone, there isalways considerable length of loose cord. or slack telephone wireintermediate the portable telephone. and the signal box which is liableto he tripped over, or become enuglcd with V3.1 o'us objects. and theobject or my invention is to provide a. novel, neat and simple appliancewhereby said loose or slack Wire or cord will be automatically hep-ttent or reeled up at all. times and yet be capable oi being readilyunreeled when l is desired to move or change the position oi theextension telephone, as from one desk to another, or from one room toanother, provision being made for enabling said slack cord to beautomatically Wound upon :1 suitable reel Without cutting or interfening iii-any Way W'th the cord or installation of the telephone company,provision being made for the slack cord to automatically kept taut, orwound u under a slight tension so that the telephone will not be movedfrom its temporary position and the liabiiity of the breakage of theinstrument or other object by the entanglement of the loose cordtherewith is entirely obviated.

My novei take up device is entirely autorustic in its operation, can bereadily installed. Without the employment of an electrician or skilledlabor, can he cheaply inanufactured, as the number of parts is reducedto a minimum. is not liableto get out of order and will be tioilnd to heeilicient and serviceable under sli conditions.

For the purpose of illustrating m3: invention, I have shown in theaccompanying drawings one form thereof which is at present preferred byme. since the some will he found in practice to give satisfactor suitsalthough it is to he understood that the various instruinentelities ofwhich my invention consists gun cs variously arranged and organized andthat my invention is not Letters Petcnted 1916. serial No. 110,425.

limited to the precise arrangement and organization of theseinstrunientslities herein shown and described.

Figure 1 represents a. perspective'view of an automatic take-upattachment for extension teicphone ei'nhodyiug my invention.

Fig. 2 represents a section on line 2-2 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 represents :1 plan View cl Fig. 2. the top of the her; beingremoved.

Fig. at represents a section elview partly in elevation of anotherembodiment of the principle of my invention.

Fig. 5 represents an end elevation of a portion of the boX and reel seenin F 3.

Similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in thefigures.

Referring to drawings:

1 designates the line Wire which leads to the signal box 2 of asubscribers desk and is of the usual construction, from which box leadsthe Wire, conductor or cord oi? the extension telephone at, which latterisyoi? the usual construction and requires no detail description.

The cord 3 is dropped into a recess 5 in the box 6 which may be ofrectangular or other shhpe supported upon a table as indicated at 7 orattached to :1 side Wall or any other desired point. The cord utterbeing passed through the recess 5 is held in position from longitudinalmovement by e. staple 8 and then Wound as indicated at 9 around the hubor spindle 10 which curries the hollow reel 11 of enlarged diameter.

Within the chamber 12 of the reel 11 is located the spring 13, which hasone end 215 lei secured to the reel 11. while the other end of saidspring as 15 is secured to the spindle 10, as will he understood from F2.;

The outer terminals 16 of the spindle 111 have their opposite sidesflattened or par allel and are adapted to he dropped into the recesses17 in the sides 28 of the box 6. so that it will he understood thatafter cord has been loosely Wound around the spindle 10, as indicated atthe top of Fig. 3, and then Wound in the reverse direction around thereel portion 18. as indicated at 19 in Figs. 2 end 3. the free end 20 ofthe 'cord will lead to the telephone stand l. I

preferably insert staple or other fastening device. indicated at??? inFig. 3 into the reel body 18, sothet an zipproxiniiotely Prods terminedfixed length of cord may be W eund on the-huh l0 and reel 18. The partsWill 2' 2, Hills,

now appear as seen in Fig. 1, it being understood that the spindle l andthe reel ll. are preferably removed or lifted upwardly from the box 6during the act of winding up the shack cord upon the hub and reel 18,the spindle portion 10 being held stationery in. the hand of the userand the reel member 18 having been turned against the tension of thespring 13, so that when the spindle l() is dropped into the box (2, asindicated in Figs. 2, 8 and 5, any pull upon the cordQO in the directionof the arrow a will automatically permit the cord 19 to unreel from reel18 end when the user is through talking on the telephone, and replacesit in its desired position, the tension of the spring 1 5 will he s iticient to reel up the cord 20, the spindle l0,

iii;

till

reel ll and the square terminals 16 operating in a manner somewhatsimilar to a. curtziin holder, and the tension of said spring being onlysuiiicient to effect the de sired reeling and unreeling of the cord orconductor 20.

It will thus be seen that under all condi- Q tions my novel device isautomatic in its operation and can be attached to any telephone havingan extension cord Without cutting or interfering in any way with theconnection or installation of the telephone company, the slack cord atall times being czipaole of being unreelcd, according to re(.guirenients, undbeing automatically reeled or Wound up and kepteufliciently taut w1thout requiring any attention on the port or" theoperator.

in practice, I cover the l3OIi'6 containing the tzilte up mechanism withit suitable cover 5-31. which can be secured in position by suitablehitching or locking devices 22, said hot:

llllw'lllg' an elongated slot 23 therein to permit of the necessarylateral unreeling of the cord 20.

in the construction seen in Fig. 4:, I have shown another embodiment ofthe principle of my invention. wherein the spindle 2% is. shown, usformed of a shaft supported from the side oi the box 6 at the point 26,the general in illllCl' of constructing and collocnting the spring 13with respect to the reel il being as already described, the cord fromthe signal box or subscribers desk being indicated in Fig. 4 as 3, theslack cord as 27, the cord on the reel as 19, and the cord leading fromthe reel to the telephone us 530, as already described with reference toFigs. 2 end The i'nunner of operation of the structure seen in Fig. iwill be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoingdescription, as it will be apparent that o pull on the cord 20 willserve to unwind the reel. 11, xii eupon when the cord 20 is released,said cord will be automatically wound on the reel and kept tout as isevident.

It will be understood that t], suitable cover or top 2111 be provided asin 2, as already explained with reference to Figs. 2 aud o, and that inall the embodiments of my invention, my novel take-up device dispenseswith complicated and expensive genring which is liable to get out oforder and can. be readily attached lo or used in conjunction with anyextension telephone hav ing on extension cord, without necessitating theemployment of an electrician or skilled labor, and without necessitatingthe cutting of the slack cord or interfering with the installation putin by the telephone company.

It will be seen from the :t'oregoin that my novel device can be readilyettec led to the slack cord of any extension telephone, without cuttingor in any. Way interfering with the telephone companysinstallation.

it is further entirely automatic in its action, and the box containingthe n1echonism can be fastened out of the way to o well, desk, table orother support.

It will be further apparent that the reel 18, which is of considerablylarger diameter than the spindle 10, can be so proportioned us to haveWound thereon a greater or loss length of cord 19, according b0 the lenth of cord which it is desired to unreel. Iv y device is especiullyuseful in extension telephones for residences, Where families at nighton'retiring take the telephone upstairs, in which case unless u deviceof the character of my invention is employed, there is liable to be a.considerable length of one cord, which is liable to be tripped over inthe dark, all of "which is obviated by my invention.

Having thus described my invention, What 1 claim new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

1. In an automatic take-up device for the cord of an extensiontelephone, a. spindle, 2:. reel rotatably mounted on said spindle, aspring intermcdia-te said reel and spindle, a telephone cord wound onsaid reel in one direction and having an extended spare length' wound inthe reverse direction on said spindle, whereby it predetermined lengthof cord may be unreeled, and 2t telephone connected to the outer end ofsaid cord extending from said reel.

2. in an automatic take-up device for the cord of on extensiontelephone, at spindle, means for preventing said spindle from rotation,a. reel rotatably mounted on sold spindle, a spring intermediate saidreel and spindle, a telephone cord wound on said reel in one directionand having an extended spare length wound in the reverse direction onsaid spindle, whereby said telephone may be readily moved toward andaway from said reel, and u fastening device for said cord intcrmeditttesaid real and spindle, and secured to said reel body, whereby itprospare length wound in the reverse direction 10 on sald spnidle,

whereby a predetermined length of cord may be unreeled from said reel,said box having an inlet opening for the cord wound on said spindle, andan outlet opening for the cord extending from said reel, said lattercord being connected 15 to said telephone.

v DAVID SWOPE. Witnesses:

E. HAYWARD FAIRBANKS,

H. S. FAIRBANKS.

